| Appell | Roll-call |
| Ausweis | Identity Card |
| Autobahn | Motorway |
| Big S | Code name for head of security in the Escape Organisation |
| Big X | Code name for the head of the Escape Organisation |
| Brigadierführer | Brigadier |
| Dean & Dawson | The Escape Organisation’s forgery factory |
| Dulag Luft | Luftwaffe Transit Camp (Durchgangslager Luftwaffe) |
| Ferrets | Nickname for German guards specifically detailed to ferret out escape activity |
| Gestapo | State Secret Police (Geheime Staatpolizei) |
| Goon | Nickname for the regular German guards |
| Goon box | Guard tower |
| Gruppenführer | Major-General |
| Hard-arser | An escaper planning to travel on foot |
| Hauptsturmführer | Captain |
| Hundführer | Guard dog master |
| Kommandantur | The German administrative compound |
| Kriegie | Shorthand for Kriegsgefangene (prisoner of war) |
| Kripo | Shorthand for Kriminalpolizei (plain clothes, criminal police) |
| Little S | Allied security officer in charge of each barrack block |
| Little X | Allied officer in charge of escape-planning in each barrack block |
| Luftwaffe | German Air Force |
| Oberstgruppenführer | General |
| Obergruppenführer | Lieutenant-General |
| Obersturmbannführer | Lieutenant-Colonel |
| Obersturmführer | Lieutenant |
| Oflag | Offizierlager (officers’ prison camp) |
| OKW | Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (the High Command of all Germany’s armed forces) |
| Penguin s | Allied officers responsible for dispersing sand via trouser leg bags |
| RSHA | Reichssicherheitshauptampt (the Reich Security Office) |
| SBO | Senior British Officer |
| Stalag | Stammlager (other ranks’ prisoner of war camp) |
| Stalag Luft | Air force prisoner-of-war camp |
| Standartenführer | Colonel |
| Stooge | Look-out |
| Sturmbannführer | Major |
| Trapführer | Allied officer in charge of tunnel entrance trap-door |
| Untersturmführer | Second Lieutenant |
| Vorlager | Compound housing cooler, medical room and postal room |